MOUNT MADONNA -- When petting a boa constrictor, go with the grain of its scales. Keep it away from your neck so it doesn't flex its thousands of muscles and squeeze, said Discovery Channel and Animal Planet host Dave Salmoni.

Salmoni, whose show "Frontier Life" premiered on Discovery this week, visited students at Mount Madonna School on Tuesday in an effort to pique their interest in conservation by showing them threatened animals.

The visit was part of a prize that students won for producing an 18-minute video on burrowing owls and their efforts to restore habitat in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties.

With a rapt audience of kindergartners through 12th-graders, Salmoni and two assistants showed off a fennec fox native to North Africa; a bearcat; a kinkajou, also known as a honey bear; a boa constrictor; and other animals that some of the students touched.

"I thought it was amazing seeing these exotic animals," said John Dias, an 11-year-old who was part of the winning fifth-grade class last school year. "The kinkajou was my favorite because he was so soft and cute."

The class competed with hundreds of other schools nationally in the "We Can Change the World Challenge," a partnership of the Seimens Foundation, National Science Teachers Association and Discovery Education.

Because South Bay and Santa Cruz County groups have been working to support the western burrowing owl, a native species in peril, the students worked with Watsonville Wetlands Watch and the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society to restore owl habitat and make interpretive signs on a trail.

They also wrote and edited a video about their work, "Give a Hoot: It's Foul to Hurt the Burrowing Owl" and sold about $1,600 in DVDs.

Their teacher, Jessica Cambell, said they donated the money to Kiva.org, a microlending firm that supports communities in areas with threatened species.

"I'm super proud of them," Cambell said of her class.

For the students, Tuesday's presentation was a chance to see, touch and even smell animals that many had only seen on television.

They learned that bearcats' fur has an odor of popcorn. The dwarf screaming hairy armadillo eats bugs and has claws for digging, Salmoni said.

While carrying the creatures, Salmoni channeled the students' attention to the threats the animals face, such as deforestation and poaching. Handling a tree-climbing kinkajou, Salmoni said, "Lots of people think this guy's fur is nice and they make purses and wallets out of it. Poaching's a big problem."

Karina Fox, a 17-year-old Mount Madonna senior, said she appreciated Salmoni's animal knowledge as well as his brawn. Hearts obviously fluttered for Salmoni during his hourlong presentation.

"It was great. He was very good with the animals," Fox said. "Also, I want to marry him. You can put that in, too."